COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Candidates to be Branch County’s Public Defender are scheduled to be interviewed by the Board of Commissioners June 18.
Once the office starts to operate, it will include the public defender as well as a deputy defender, contract attorneys, staff and an investigator as needed.
County Administrator Bud Norman recently said the public defender’s office will be initially in the northwest corner of the former Pines Behavioral Health building.
Each county in Michigan has been required to create an indigent defense plan due to a 2012 lawsuit. Part of the settlement called for the State of Michigan to implement a plan so that a defendant who was indigent would have proper legal representation.
